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Monthly Archives: April 2017

William Shirer published Berlin Diary in 1941, the year following his departure as a correspondent from Berlin. While the book derives largely from contemporaneous notes, it is not the transcript of a daily ledger. There was difficulty getting his notes out of Germany, considerable danger being attached should they be discovered at the border. At the least, such inflammatory material would have been confiscated. A consequence is that Shirer composed the bulk of the book once safely outside Nazi Germany. This is one of a series reviewing the book.

The previous post includes Shirer’s account of his visit to Nuremberg in September 1934 to cover the annual Nazi rally. It highlights impressions he gained observing the Nazis first hand. In October Shirer and his wife Theresa (Tess) settled into a more or less permanent home in Berlin. Shirer began to observe life under Nazi rule:

BERLIN, October 9

We’ve taken a comfortable studio flat in the Tauenzienstrasse. The owner, a Jewish sculptor, says he is getting off for England while the getting is good— probably a wise man. He left us a fine German library, which I hope I will get time to use.

Shirer’s Jewish landlord is representative of the situation of German Jews in the 1930s. Hitler never made a secret of his desire to eliminate German (European?) Jewry, and Jews came under immediate oppression when the Nazis took power in 1933. Two out of every three were to die by 1945. The landlord was one of the lucky ones.

Shirer continues to observe the dissolution of European society. The same day:

LATER.— On my eight o’clock call to the Paris office tonight, they told me that the King of Yugoslavia had been assassinated at Marseille this afternoon and that Louis Barthou, the French Foreign Minister, had been badly wounded. Berlin will not be greatly disappointed, as King Alexander seemed disposed to work more closely with the French bloc against Germany, and Barthou had been doing some good work in strengthening French alliances in eastern Europe and in attempting

Adolf Hitler was born and raised a Catholic, and was a choir boy in the church. Despite his impious reputation, Hitler never renounced his faith, even reaffirming it in at least one communication. However, it was necessary for Nazism to dominate, and the Christian churches represented an opposing authority Hitler needed to bring into line:

BERLIN, November 15

Not much news these days. Have been covering the fight in the Protestant church. A section of the Protestants seem to be showing more guts in the face of Gleichschaltung (co-ordination) than the Socialists or Communists did. But I think Hitler will get them in the end and gradually force on the country a brand of early German paganism which the “intellectuals” like Rosenberg are hatching up.

Complete political control requires elimination of opposing thought, and control of the public education system is a goal appreciated, even in the United States, by certain political factions. The same day:

Bernhard Rust, the Nazi Minister of Education, was the speaker, but my mind wandered during his speech. Rust is not without ability and is completely Nazifying the schools. This includes new Nazi textbooks falsifying history— sometimes ludicrously.

German rearmament, in violation of the Treaty of Versailles, was an open secret that the Allies, victors in the previous war, found it convenient to ignore. Why stir the pot? The secret was becoming less so:

BERLIN, November 28

Much talk here that Germany is secretly arming, though it is difficult to get definite dope, and if you did get it and sent it, you’d probably be expelled.

This rounds out the year 1934. Shirer came to Germany during that year, and the full nature of Nazism was becoming apparent. The following year, 1935, was the year during which Nazi Germany began to assert itself on the world stage. Hints of Hitler’s plan for expansion began to show through to anybody with sufficient vision. The following installment of this series will cover that year entirely.

There’s no way I’m ever going to run out of these. Daniel Dale, with the Washington bureau of The Toronto Star, compiled a list of 80 fabrications by Donald Trump, all during the first four weeks of the new administration. That was so many days ago, and we have ceased expecting any truth from our president. It’s near pointless to continue putting Donald Trump’s lies on display. However, forge ahead I must. History is waiting. Here is number 72:

72. Feb. 16, 2017 — White House press conference

The claim: “Now, when WikiLeaks, which I had nothing to do with, comes out and happens to give, they’re not giving classified information.”

In fact: Trump may have been attempting to refer specifically to WikiLeaks release of emails related to Hillary Clinton’s campaign, which were not classified. But he ended up wrongly suggesting that WikiLeaks does not provide classified information at all. The organization made its name releasing hundreds of thousands of pages of classified U.S. material.

Daniel Dale’s list has since grown. As of 18 April the count was up to 179. How long can our president keep this up? Better yet, how long can I keep this up?

It’s getting harder to select a Bad Movie of the Week these days. I’m making a point of setting aside my considerable collection of bad movies on DVD and going after those on my Amazon and Hulu subscriptions. These services rotate their stock, and what’s available this month is liable to be gone the next. This one is bad, and it’s from 1946, about the time movies were getting on their feet after the big war. It’s The Inner Circle, and I was surprised to find a Wikipedia entry, where I’m getting details. Screen shots are from Amazon Prime Video. Republic Pictures produced and distributed this.

I don’t recognize any of the players, and I’m guessing none of my readers do, either. Anybody who knows these people, feel free to clue me in.

The opening shot is a Yellow Pages ad for Action Incorporated, a detective agency run by Johnny Strange (Warren Douglas). The phone book closes and slides out of view to reveal a revolver on the floor. The camera pans to disclose a dead body. This is going to be a murder mystery.

Next we see Johnny Strange on the phone to the newspaper classified section. He’s placing an ad for a secretary. These are the old days, before sexual equality. He specifies the secretary must be a woman (of course), 22 to 28, blond, good looking, skin soft to the touch, and a heart that can’t be touched. Is this Johnny Strange or Mike Hammer?

Before Johnny can complete the transaction a female fitting the description saunters in, snatches the phone from his hands, cancels the ad order, and announces herself as the new secretary. It’s apparent she fits the bill. She is Gerry Smith (Adele Mara). She takes charge right away, and this is critical.

She observes Johnny is paying for periodic cleaning of the office and is not getting it.

She picks up the phone to call the building manager, getting the number from Johnny.

Meanwhile Johnny’s other phone rings, and she finishes her call with building manager and takes the other call.

She speaks to the caller, apparently a client. She tells Johnny the details. Meet the woman in front of the jewelry store at 7:30 p.m. for further instructions. No other details available.

Note the image above. Johnny has two phone numbers. That is critical.

Johnny picks up the mysterious woman, wearing black and a black veil and speaking with a heavy Mexican accent. She takes him to an office where her husband has been killed. It’s the body from the opening scene. Things are tying together. She attempts to bribe Johnny into helping her dispose of the body, bidding the price up to $5000. She does not pay off. While Johnny is attempting to phone the police she conks him on the head with a bookend, places the pistol in his hand, and phones the police. Then she leaves and takes off her disguise, revealing herself to be Gerry Smith.

When Johnny comes to he’s holding the murder weapon, and the police are arriving. They are Detective Lieutenant Webb (William Frawley) and Police Officer Cummings (Robert J. Wilke). It appears that Johnny is going to be left holding the bag. Except that the gardener, Henry Boggs (Will Wright), has seen all the goings on through the window. But he doesn’t save the day for Johnny. Johnny’s secretary, Gerry, does. She arrives and lies to the police, giving a false statement about following Johnny and observing what went on through the window.

Meanwhile the housekeeper, Emma Wilson (Dorothy Adams), has also arrived, to further confuse matters.

Based on Gerry’s statement, Johnny is not indicted for the murder, and he and Gerry go on a quest for the killer. Johnny stops by the Penguin Club to talk to Rhoda Roberts (Virginia Christine), whose singing has been observed on a 78 platter Johnny retrieved from a wastebasket at the murder scene. Before this can conclude, in comes “Duke” York, criminal heavyweight and owner of the Penguin Club. After some conversation, “Duke” and two henchmen take Johnny for a ride in their car out to a place where the water is deep.

Without getting into details, Gerry and Lieutenant Webb come to the rescue.

Again, omitting more detail, we observe that Gerry Smith is Geraldine Travis, sister of Anne Travis Lowe (Martha Montgomery), who was previously riding in the car with a bank robber during a police chase and was more recently being blackmailed by the murdered guy. It’s all been an elaborate scheme by Gerry/Geraldine to protect her sister, who has turned out to be innocent of the killing.

Johnny also reveals how he caught onto Gerry’s subterfuge back at the office. When Gerry announced she was phoning the building manager, she actually phoned Johnny’s other number. Then she pretended to take that call, talking to nobody, while Johnny looked on, confused. Johnny has become wise to the ruse when he phoned the building manager and got a message that the number has been changed, and here is the new number. This did not happen when Gerry placed her “call to the building manager.”

Lieutenant Webb has been secretly recording all of this on a 78 platter, and he hauls everybody in. But Johnny has a better idea.

He convenes all suspects (finger pointing at Geraldine) in the murder room and stages a radio broadcast, at which all parties will recount their parts, and the audience will finally be clear regarding the real killer.

Surprise, the killer turns out not to be Geraldine, and at the conclusion they embrace with closer encounters forecast.

It’s an interesting, but unbelievable, plot, and the performances are summer stock. How likely is it that Geraldine charges into Johnny’s office right at the moment he is phoning in his ad for a secretary, one who exactly fits the description of Gerry Smith? Yeah, I don’t believe it, either.

Would you believe it? The best performance is turned in by Dorothy Adams as Emma Wilson. She absolutely nails her small part. Here is a list of her notable movie roles:

William Shirer published Berlin Diary in 1941, the year following his departure as a correspondent from Berlin. While the book derives largely from contemporaneous notes, it is not the transcript of a daily ledger. There was difficulty getting his notes out of Germany, considerable danger being attached should they be discovered at the border. At the least, such inflammatory material would have been confiscated. A consequence is that Shirer composed the bulk of the book once safely outside Nazi Germany.

On 30 June 1934 Shirer was working for the Paris Herald and reporting from Paris. He observes that communication with Berlin was cut off for several hours. The reason soon becomes clear.

PARIS, July 14

It now develops that Hitler’s purge was more drastic than first reported. Röhm did not kill himself, but was shot on the orders of Hitler. Other dead: Heines, notorious Nazi boss of Silesia, Dr. Erich Klausner, leader of the “Catholic Action” in Germany, Fritz von Bose and Edgar Jung, two of Papen’s secretaries (Papen himself narrowly escaped with his life), Gregor Strasser, who used to be second in importance to Hitler in the Nazi Party, and General von Schleicher and his wife, the latter two murdered in cold blood. I see von Kahr is on the list, the man who balked Hitler’s Beer House Putsch in 1923. Hitler has thus taken his personal revenge. Yesterday, on Friday the 13th, Hitler got away with his explanation in the Reichstag. When he screamed: “The supreme court of the German people during these twenty-four hours consisted of myself!” the deputies rose and cheered. One had almost forgotten how strong sadism and masochism are in the German people.

Of particular note is the life trajectory of Gregor Strasser. Gregor and his brother Otto were prominent in the formation of what became National Socialism,, but a falling out eventually doomed Gregor:

Born in 1892 in Bavaria, Strasser served in World War I in an artillery regiment, rising to the rank of first lieutenant. He joined the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in 1920 and quickly became an influential and important figure. He took part in the abortive putsch in Munich in 1923 and was imprisoned, but released early on for political reasons.

Strasser joined a revived NSDAP in 1925 and once again established himself as a powerful and dominant member, hugely increasing the party’s membership and reputation in northern Germany. Personal and political conflicts with Adolf Hitler led to his death in 1934 during the Night of the Long Knives.

The story of Joseph Goebbels by Fraenkel and Manvell recounts Gregor Strasser’s downfall.

Grim European politics continues to play out while Shirer observes.

PARIS, July 25

Dollfuss is dead, murdered by the Nazis, who today seized control of the Chancellery and the radio station in Vienna. Apparently their coup has failed and Miklas and Dr. Schuschnigg are in control. I do not like murder, and Nazi murder least of all. But I cannot weep for Dollfuss after his cold-blooded slaughter of the Social Democrats last February.

During this time Hitler nominally shared power with German President Paul von Hindenburg, German hero of World War One. In August, following Hitler’s elimination of other rivals to his power, Hindenburg died.

PARIS, August 3

Hitler did what no one expected. He made himself both President and Chancellor. Any doubts about the loyalty of the army were done away with before the old field-marshal’s body was hardly cold. Hitler had the army swear an oath of unconditional obedience to him personally. The man is resourceful.

Hitler’s move was audacious. The minor part was his absorbing both government heads. Having the armed forces swear allegiance to him personally was a diabolical stroke. Picture this: you’re a soldier in the Reichswehr, in formation before your commanding officer, and he “instructs” you to raise your hand in the two-fingered salute and swear allegiance to that one man. Not to the Reichswehr, not to Germany, but to a dictator who has just demonstrated no compunction against mass murder. You cannot say no, and the oath, to a German, is a blood oath. It cannot be rescinded. All did it, and from that day forward the German armed forces were chained to the fortunes of this former army corporal. If he was going down, they were, too.

Shirer received a job offer that was to change the course of his life. It was to lead him to Berlin, into the center of the storm.

PARIS, August 9

Dosch-Fleurot rang me at the office this afternoon from Berlin and offered me a job with Universal Service there. I said yes at once, we agreed on a salary, and he said he would let me know after talking with New York.

Shirer’s introduction to Nazi Germany sets the stage for what is to come.

BERLIN, August 25

Our introduction to Hitler’s Third Reich this evening was probably typical. Taking the day train from Paris so as to see a little of the country, we arrived at the Friedrichstrasse Bahnhof at about ten this evening. The first persons to greet us on the platform were two agents of the secret police. I had expected to meet the secret police sooner or later, but not quite so soon. Two plain-clothes men grabbed me as I stepped off the train, led me a little away, and asked me if I were Herr So-and-So— I could not for the life of me catch the name. I said no. One of them asked again and again and finally I showed him my passport. He scanned it for several minutes, finally looked at me suspiciously, and said: “So…. You are not Herr So-and-So, then. You are Herr Shirer.”

Followed by… more of what is to come. Life was trying for journalists in Nazi Germany.

BERLIN, August 26

Knickerbocker tells me Dorothy Thompson departed from the Friedrichstrasse station shortly before we arrived yesterday. She had been given twenty-four hours to get out— apparently the work of Putzi Hanfstängl, who could not forgive her for her book I Saw Hitler, which, at that, badly underestimated the man. Knick’s own position here is precarious apparently because of some of his past and present writings. Goebbels, who used to like him, has fallen afoul of him.

BERLIN, September 2

The constant Heil Hitler’s, clicking of heels, and brown-shirted storm troopers or black-coated S.S. guards marching up and down the street grate me, though the old-timers say there are not nearly so many brown-shirts about since the purge.

Shirer continues to soak up the Nazi Germany experience, and he gives additional insight. In September 1934 he attended the yearly Nazi rally in Nuremberg. It’s a telling view of the emboldened Nazi Party and the rebirth of the German military.

NUREMBERG, September 4

Like a Roman emperor Hitler rode into this mediæval town at sundown today past solid phalanxes of wildly cheering Nazis who packed the narrow streets that once saw Hans Sachs and the Meistersinger.

He was clad in a rather worn gaberdine trench-coat, his face had no particular expression at all— I expected it to be stronger— and for the life of me I could not quite comprehend what hidden springs he undoubtedly unloosed in the hysterical mob which was greeting him so wildly. He does not stand before the crowd with that theatrical imperiousness which I have seen Mussolini use. I was glad to see that he did not poke out his chin and throw his head back as does the Duce nor make his eyes glassy— though there is something glassy in his eyes, the strongest thing in his face. He almost seemed to be affecting a modesty in his bearing. I doubt if it’s genuine.

Putzi Hanfstängl, an immense, high-strung, incoherent clown who does not often fail to remind us that he is part American and graduated from Harvard, made the main speech of the day in his capacity of foreign press chief of the party. Obviously trying to please his boss, he had the crust to ask us to “report on affairs in Germany without attempting to interpret them.” “History alone,” Putzi shouted, “can evaluate the events now taking place under Hitler.” What he meant, and what Goebbels and Rosenberg mean, is that we should jump on the band-wagon of Nazi propaganda.

It’s impossible to pass up this opportunity to relate Shirer’s impression of the Hitler experience:

About ten o’clock tonight I got caught in a mob of ten thousand hysterics who jammed the moat in front of Hitler’s hotel, shouting: “We want our Führer.” I was a little shocked at the faces, especially those of the women, when Hitler finally appeared on the balcony for a moment. They reminded me of the crazed expressions I saw once in the back country of Louisiana on the faces of some Holy Rollers who were about to hit the trail. They looked up at him as if he were a Messiah, their faces transformed into something positively inhuman. If he had remained in sight for more than a few moments, I think many of the women would have swooned from excitement.

NUREMBERG, September 5

I’m beginning to comprehend, I think, some of the reasons for Hitler’s astounding success. Borrowing a chapter from the Roman church, he is restoring pageantry and colour and mysticism to the drab lives of twentieth-century Germans.

I’m beginning to comprehend, I think, some of the reasons for Hitler’s astounding success. Borrowing a chapter from the Roman church, he is restoring pageantry and colour and mysticism to the drab lives of twentieth-century Germans.

NUREMBERG, September 6

Now, the goose-step has always seemed to me to be an outlandish exhibition of the human being in his most undignified and stupid state, but I felt for the first time this morning what an inner chord it strikes in the strange soul of the German people.

NUREMBERG, September 7

Von Papen arrived today and stood alone in a car behind Hitler tonight, the first public appearance he has made, I think, since he narrowly escaped being murdered by Göring on June 30. He did not look happy.

The decapitation of the SA and other opposition to Hitler would likely produce some repercussions. Hitler had to get things straight. There had to be assurances the bloodletting was over… for now.

NUREMBERG, September 9

Hitler faced his S.A. storm troopers today for the first time since the bloody purge. In a harangue to fifty thousand of them he “absolved” them from blame for the Röhm “revolt.” There was considerable tension in the stadium and I noticed that Hitler’s own S.S. bodyguard was drawn up in force in front of him, separating him from the mass of the brown-shirts.

Germany lost big in the First World War, and the Versailles Treaty placed onerous burdens of reparation on the country. Further, the treaty sharply restricted German rearmament, a restriction the Germans immediately and covertly began to undermine. Winston Churchill, out of power during this critical period, was one of a few, and by far the most strident, to raise alarms at Germany’s covert action:

It was also at this moment a great diplomatic advantage to Hitler to divide the Allies, to have one of them ready to condone breaches of the Treaty of Versailles, and to invest the regaining of full freedom to rearm with the sanction of agreement with Britain. The effect of the announcement was another blow at the League of Nations. The French had every right to complain that their vital interests were affected by the permission accorded by Great Britain for the building of U-boats. Mussolini saw in this episode evidence that Great Britain was not acting in good faith with her other allies, and that, so long as her special naval interests were secured, she would apparently go to any length in accommodation with Germany, regardless of the detriment to friendly Powers menaced by the growth of the German land forces. He was encouraged by what seemed the cynical and selfish attitude of Great Britain to press on with his plans against Abyssinia. The Scandinavian Powers, who only a fortnight before had courageously sustained the protest against Hitler’s introduction of compulsory service in the German Army, now found that Great Britain had behind the scenes agreed to a German Navy which, though only a third of the British, would within this limit be master of the Baltic.

Immediately following the previous war, the German military command began to play the treaty’s restrictions. There were limits on total troop strength. No problem. What is basic to an armed force is a command structure, so German military leaders didn’t waste numbers on privates and corporals. They created an officer corps wearing enlisted stripes. Came time to ramp up, the command structure was in place. All that was necessary was pinning on stars and bars. The lower ranks could be quickly filled from with conscripts and a horde of volunteers. Shirer describes the obvious, that German rearmament has been underway for years.

NUREMBERG, September 10

I feel that all those Americans and English (among others) who thought that German militarism was merely a product of the Hohenzollerns—from Frederick the Great to Kaiser Wilhelm II—made a mistake. It is rather something deeply ingrained in all Germans. They acted today like children playing with tin soldiers. The Reichswehr “fought” today only with the “defensive” weapons allowed them by Versailles, but everybody knows they’ve got the rest— tanks, heavy artillery, and probably airplanes.

There’s no way I’m ever going to run out of these. Daniel Dale, with the Washington bureau of The Toronto Star, compiled a list of 80 fabrications by Donald Trump, all during the first four weeks of the new administration. That was so many days ago, and we have ceased expecting any truth from our president. It’s near pointless to continue putting Donald Trump’s lies on display. However, forge ahead I must. History is waiting. Here is number 71:

71. Feb. 16, 2017 — White House press conference

The claim: “The failing New York Times wrote a big, long front-page story yesterday. And it was very much discredited, as you know.”

In fact: The article, headlined “Trump Campaign Aides Had Repeated Contacts With Russian Intelligence,” has not been discredited.

Daniel Dale’s list has since grown. As of 18 April the count was up to 179. How long can our president keep this up? Better yet, how long can I keep this up?

A sunny day in Ireland, and two men are sitting in a pub, drinking some Guinness, when one turns to the other and says, “You see that man over there? He looks just like me. I think I’m gonna go over there and talk to him.”

So, he goes over to the man and taps him on the shoulder. “Excuse me, sir,” he starts, “but I noticed you look just like me.”

The second man turns around and says, “Yeah, I noticed the same thing. Where are you from?”

“I’m from Dublin,”

The second man, stunned, says, “Me too! What street do you live on?”

“McCarthy street,” the second man replies.

“Me to! What number is it?”

The first man announces, “182.”

The second man, shocked, says, “Me too! What are your parents’ names?”

The first man replies, “Conner and Shannon.”

The second man, awestruck, says, “Mine too! this is unbelievable!”

So, they buy some more Guinness, and they’re talking some more when the bartenders change shifts. The new bartender comes in and goes to the other and asks, “What’s new today?”

I may have mentioned this before, but as a way of supporting real news I obtained a digital subscription to The New York Times, for which I am being pleasantly rewarded. I get to read prior issues, going back to 1851. That was before most of us were born. Anyhow, I consider the NYT to be a reliable news source, certainly compared to a raft of other spigots adorning the wires these days.

Conservatives, and also the newest President, consider the Times to be a liberal fire hose. Many liberals, as well, claim to notice a leftward slant. My thinking is this appearance is due to the paper’s contrast with concerted right wing outlets. Readers should look to a source’s editorial section to pick up any scent of tip to one direction, and in this respect the Times asserts some balance. We see, or have seen:

David Brooks

Maureen Dowd (an equal opportunity agitator)

Mark Shields

Paul Krugman

Thomas L. Friedman

George Will

Now there is Bret Stephens, and his first column appeared today, 28 April. He opens with the following:

When someone is honestly 55 percent right, that’s very good and there’s no use wrangling. And if someone is 60 percent right, it’s wonderful, it’s great luck, and let him thank God.

But what’s to be said about 75 percent right? Wise people say this is suspicious. Well, and what about 100 percent right? Whoever says he’s 100 percent right is a fanatic, .

— An old Jew of Galicia

We soon learn he is talking about the scientific consensus supporting anthropogenic global warming (AGW), and he is cautioning against certainty. In fact, the headline of his opinion piece is “Climate of Complete Certainty.”

My first take on his column’s epigraph is that it is overly general. Supposing the old Jew of Galicia is right, in which case I am “a thug, and the worst kind of rascal.” And so is columnist Stephens. And I added my comment to that effect to the on-line piece. I (Stephens, as well) am 100% certain the Earth rotates counterclockwise as viewed from above the North Pole. Equally certain are we that the sun rises in the east. So, the old Jew notwithstanding, 100% certainty is not a mark of thuggery.

But Stephens spreads his message thinner:

There’s a lesson here. We live in a world in which data convey authority. But authority has a way of descending to certitude, and certitude begets hubris. From Robert McNamara to Lehman Brothers to Stronger Together, cautionary tales abound.

We ought to know this by now, but we don’t. Instead, we respond to the inherent uncertainties of data by adding more data without revisiting our assumptions, creating an impression of certainty that can be lulling, misleading and often dangerous. Ask Clinton.

The Clinton reference is thought to be regarding Hilary Clinton’s strong stand on AGW during her campaign, a factor that cost many votes in conservative areas.

But surely certitude does beget hubris, and if you want to appear warm and fuzzy (as when you are seeking somebody’s vote) it may be better to be less certain. In politics.

I’m not a politician, and I have no need to please anybody. At this I am immensely successful. Take the screen shot gracing the head of this column. That’s from a Facebook dialog I had with a friend named Dan. He opened with:

I guess Algor is coming out with a sequel to his “Inconvenient ‘Truth'” film.

I hope the film will answer these questions:

How does CO2, which is 1.4x the weight of air get up above the Troposphere to form a greenhouse? What is its density there, given that CO2 is less than 004 of 1% (= four ten-thousandths or 40 PPM) of all gasses in the atmosphere?

Followed by items 2 through 8 in a similar vein. Others chimed in, including Mark. As one who studied some science in college (also high school) I have to say Mark’s understanding of science does not bode well for the American educational system. Details on request.

Again, forgetting the politicians, Bret Stephens can forgive scientists for some hubris if he will pause for a moment to examine the complaints made by the AGW deniers. These arguments generally boil down to something like those of Dan and Mark. Many are steeped in a gross misunderstanding of basic science plus ignorance (or denial) of available data.

Stephens attempts to avoid this trap with qualifying language:

Well, not entirely. As Andrew Revkin wrote last year about his storied career as an environmental reporter at The Times, “I saw a widening gap between what scientists had been learning about global warming and what advocates were claiming as they pushed ever harder to pass climate legislation.” The science was generally scrupulous. The boosters who claimed its authority weren’t.

He’s not disputing the data. The problem is what are advocates for remedy postulating. On this point Stephens and I are in agreement. A sweltering summer day in Chicago (people dying). A devastating tornado rips through a Mississippi town. It’s the doom of global warming! There is no doubt boosters for remedy are overstating the case.

Let them. Put them in their place. The science still stands. Human activity is producing increased concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere (CO2 concentration currently exceeds 400 ppm). Global temperature averages are increasing in correspondence with increasing concentrations of CO2. Polar ice is melting. The mean sea level is rising. Coastal areas are being affected. All else is bull shit. The need for human intervention is manifest on this issue alone.

The cadre of politicians and vocal citizens may like to take heart from Stephens’ analysis, but they need to appreciate that he is only showcasing their own agenda. Attacks on the science may not be successful, but the political ploy of gaming the statements by AGW fanatics is a quiver full of ammunition for the deniers. In the end it will not matter.

Stephens quoted a (mythical?) old Jew of Galicia. Another quote from way back goes, “Man proposes. Allah disposes.” Think what you want, Nature will have its way.

Cummings, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, released three documents on Flynn, including a letter from the DIA counsel’s office in response to an inquiry from Flynn in October 2014.

The letter, a primer on ethics restrictions that apply to retired military officers, warned that Flynn was prohibited from receiving foreign payments without prior approval, under the emoluments clause of the U.S. Constitution.

“The Pentagon’s warning to Gen. Flynn was bold, italicized and could not have been clearer,” Cummings said at a news conference today.

That General Flynn did not pick up on this legal technicality is mind-numbing, considering he is an expert on criminal intent. As recently as last July he was giving sound legal advice to chanting crowds.

There’s no way I’m ever going to run out of these. Daniel Dale, with the Washington bureau of The Toronto Star, compiled a list of 80 fabrications by Donald Trump, all during the first four weeks of the new administration. That was so many days ago, and we have ceased expecting any truth from our president. It’s near pointless to continue putting Donald Trump’s lies on display. However, forge ahead I must. History is waiting. Here is number 70:

70. Feb. 16, 2017 — White House press conference

The claim: “And the people mentioned in the story, I notice they were on television today saying they never even spoke to Russia.”

In fact: One of the people mentioned in the New York Times story, Trump associate Roger Stone, went on television to deny having any contact with any Russians. But the other people mentioned in the story did not issue such categorical denials in any medium. Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign manager, told the New York Times that he never “knowingly” had contact with Russian intelligence officers, adding that such people do not “wear badges.” Former Trump adviser Carter Page he had only “said hello to a few Russian officials over the course of the last year or so”; he also gave a speech in Moscow.

Daniel Dale’s list has since grown. As of 18 April the count was up to 179. How long can our president keep this up? Better yet, how long can I keep this up?

There’s no way I’m ever going to run out of these. Daniel Dale, with the Washington bureau of The Toronto Star, compiled a list of 80 fabrications by Donald Trump, all during the first four weeks of the new administration. That was so many days ago, and we have ceased expecting any truth from our president. It’s near pointless to continue putting Donald Trump’s lies on display. However, forge ahead I must. History is waiting. Here is number 69:

69. Feb. 16, 2017 — White House press conference

The claim about the 9th Circuit appeals court: “In fact, we had to go quicker than we thought because of the bad decision we received from a circuit that has been overturned at a record number. I have heard 80 per cent — I find that hard to believe; that’s just a number I heard — that they’re overturned 80 per cent of the time.”

In fact: This statement is false in one way, possibly misleading in another. It is false that the 9th Circuit is overturned by the Supreme Court at a “record number.” Even in the study conservatives usually cite in criticizing the 9th Circuit, the court had the second-highest reversal rate between 1999 and 2008. Between 2010 and 2015, it was third-highest. In the most recent court term for which complete data is readily available, the 9th Circuit was again in second place.

It may be misleading to discuss reversal rates this way at all. The Supreme Court overturns a majority of cases it agrees to hear — but those cases represent a tiny fraction of total cases decided by a circuit court. So even if 80 per cent of 9th Circuit cases that reach the Supreme Court are overturned, that still means more than 99 per cent of the circuit’s total decisions are not overturned.

Daniel Dale’s list has since grown. As of 18 April the count was up to 179. How long can our president keep this up? Better yet, how long can I keep this up?

The Second Amendment gives American citizens the right to possess firearms for purposes of national security and also for their personal protection. It is well known that we must always be on our guard against a pervasive criminal element, and a readily available handgun is our best protection. Handguns also come in handy when a nasty domestic situation arises:

A gunman’s “relatively short” marriage and his alleged history of crime and drug use preceded Monday’s killing and suicide at a California grade school where three people died, according to police.

Cedric Anderson, of Riverside, California, walked into a special-needs classroom at North Park Elementary School in San Bernardino and opened fire on his estranged wife, Karen Elaine Smith, “without saying anything,” before turning the gun himself, San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan said.

William Shirer published Berlin Diary in 1941, the year following his departure as a correspondent from Berlin. While the book derives largely from contemporaneous notes, it is not the transcript of a daily ledger. There was difficulty getting his notes out of Germany, considerable danger being attached should they be discovered at the border by Nazis. At the least, such inflammatory material would have been confiscated. A consequence is that Shirer composed the bulk of the book once safely outside Nazi Germany.

The book is sectioned, with titles by date, and this series will unroll a month at a time, or by multiple months at a time, until it reaches the 80th anniversary of the date. From that point on posts will correspond with the 80th anniversaries.

Following the events of 1934, Shirer picks up again on 34 June 1934, a pivotal date in the history of Nazi Germany. This was the Night of the Long Knives, when Hitler asserted complete control by eliminating all his rivals, and a few others besides.

PARIS, June 30

Berlin was cut off for several hours today, but late this afternoon telephone communication was re-established. And what a story! Hitler and Göring have purged the S.A., shooting many of its leaders. Röhm, arrested by Hitler himself, was allowed to commit suicide in a Munich jail, according to one agency report. The French are pleased. They think this is the beginning of the end for the Nazis. Wish I could

There was a good reason Berlin was cut off for several hours that day. Wikipedia explains:

The Night of the Long Knives, also called Operation Hummingbird or, in Germany, the Röhm Putsch (German spelling: Röhm-Putsch), was a purge that took place in Nazi Germany from June 30 to July 2, 1934, when the Nazi regime carried out a series of political extrajudicial executions intended to consolidate Hitler’s absolute hold on power in Germany. Many of those killed were leaders of the SA (Sturmabteilung), the Nazis’ own paramilitary Brownshirts organization; the best-known victim was Ernst Röhm, the SA’s leader and one of Hitler’s longtime supporters and allies. Leading members of the left-wing Strasserist faction of the Nazi Party (NSDAP), along with its figurehead, Gregor Strasser, were also killed, as were establishment conservatives and anti-Nazis (such as former Chancellor Kurt von Schleicher and Bavarian politician Gustav Ritter von Kahr, who had suppressed Adolf Hitler‘s Munich Beer Hall Putsch in 1923). The murders of Brownshirt leaders were also intended to improve the image of the Hitler government with a German public that was increasingly critical of thuggish Brownshirt tactics.

Ernst Röhm was the primary target of the purge. Röhm and Hitler were early catalysts for the German Workers’ Party (DAP), which later became the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP) [from Wikipedia], a forerunner for the National Socialist (Nazi) party. Röhm led the failed Beer Hall Putsch of 1923 and received a suspended sentence. Following a hiatus from German politics, during which he consulted for the military in Bolivia, Röhm returned and eventually headed up the SA, the Sturmabteilung or Brownshirts. The SA was an army of street fighters who enforced for the Nazis during the lead up to the party’s ascent to power in 1933.

After Hitler became chancellor in January of that year, the SA became superfluous, and their power was seen more as a liability and as a rival to Hitler’s. Germany’s military high command disdained the presence of such a group, and likewise German industrial leaders, who had championed Hitler’s rise, saw them as a threat and an embarrassment. In great secrecy the plot was hatched to eliminate all threats to Hitler’s position. Lists were drawn up, assignments were made, and the strike was carried out beginning in the early morning hours of 30 June.

A critical factor was the sexual orientation of Röhm and others high in the SA. Röhm was a notorious homosexual and homosexuality flourished in the group. This was a matter of considerable concern to a movement that championed Christian virtue and Germany’s racial superiority. The pretext for the bloodletting was a supposed plot being hatched within the SA, and that set the stage. Shirer tells the story in another book:

At the moment of 2 A.M. on June 30 when Hitler, with Goebbels at his side, was taking off from Hangelar Airfield near Bonn, Captain Roehm and his S.A. lieutenants were peacefully slumbering in their beds at the Hanslbauer Hotel at Wiessee on the shores of the Tegernsee. Edmund Heines, the S.A. Obergruppenfuehrer of Silesia, a convicted murderer, a notorious homosexual with a girlish face on the brawny body of a piano mover, was in bed with a young man. So far did the S.A. chiefs seem from staging a revolt that Roehm had left his staff guards in Munich. There appeared to be plenty of carousing among the S.A. leaders but no plotting.

Shirer, William. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (p. 221). RosettaBooks. Kindle Edition.

Hitler’s icy nature is shown in full glory as he deals with an old friend:

Shortly after dawn Hitler and his party sped out of Munich toward Wiessee in a long column of cars. They found Roehm and his friends still fast asleep in the Hanslbauer Hotel. The awakening was rude. Heines and his young male companion were dragged out of bed, taken outside the hotel and summarily shot on the orders of Hitler. The Fuehrer, according to Otto Dietrich’s account, entered Roehm’s room alone, gave him a dressing down and ordered him to be brought back to Munich and lodged in Stadelheim prison, where the S.A. chief had served time after his participation with Hitler in the Beer Hall Putsch in 1923. After fourteen stormy years the two friends, who more than any others were

Shortly after dawn Hitler and his party sped out of Munich toward Wiessee in a long column of cars. They found Roehm and his friends still fast asleep in the Hanslbauer Hotel. The awakening was rude. Heines and his young male companion were dragged out of bed, taken outside the hotel and summarily shot on the orders of Hitler. The Fuehrer, according to Otto Dietrich’s account, entered Roehm’s room alone, gave him a dressing down and ordered him to be brought back to Munich and lodged in Stadelheim prison, where the S.A. chief had served time after his participation with Hitler in the Beer Hall Putsch in 1923. After fourteen stormy years the two friends, who more than any others were

Hitler, in a final act of what he apparently thought was grace, gave orders that a pistol be left on the table of his old comrade. Roehm refused to make use of it. “If I am to be killed, let Adolf do it himself,” he is reported to have said. Thereupon two S.A. officers, according to the testimony of an eyewitness, a police lieutenant, given twenty-three years later in a postwar trial at Munich in May 1957, entered the cell and fired their revolvers at Roehm point-blank. “Roehm wanted to say something,” said this witness, “but the S.S. officer motioned him to shut up. Then Roehm stood at attention—he was stripped to the waist—with his face full of contempt.”* And so he died, violently as he had lived, contemptuous of the friend he had helped propel to the heights no other German had ever reached, and almost certainly, like hundreds of others who were slaughtered that day—like Schneidhuber, who was reported to have cried, “Gentlemen, I don’t know what this is all about, but shoot straight”—without any clear idea of what was happening, or why, other than that it was an act of treachery which he, who had lived so long with treachery and committed it so often himself, had not expected from Adolf Hitler.

Shirer, William. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (pp. 221-222). RosettaBooks. Kindle Edition.

The TV series The World at War chronicles the rise of Nazi power in Episode 1, and it features army officer Edwald von Kleist describing the events of the Nazi purge. He notes that not only Röhm and other direct threats to Hitler were purged, but people considered to be merely unpleasant were added to the list. The Wikipedia entry states, “At least 85 people died during the purge, although the final death toll may have been in the hundreds.” Among those scooped up was Kurt von Schleicher, who had preceded Hitler as Germany’s chancellor.

The S.A. men were not the only ones to fall on that bloody summer weekend. On the morning of June 30, a squad of S.S. men in mufti rang the doorbell at General von Schleicher’s villa on the outskirts of Berlin. When the General opened the door he was shot dead in his tracks, and when his wife, whom he had married but eighteen months before—he had been a bachelor until then—stepped forward, she too was slain on the spot. General Kurt von Bredow, a close friend of Schleicher, met a similar fate the same evening. Gregor Strasser was seized at his home in Berlin at noon on Saturday and dispatched a few hours later in his cell in the Prinz Albrechtstrasse Gestapo jail on the personal orders of Goering.

Shirer, William. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (p. 222). RosettaBooks. Kindle Edition.

One who escaped was Franz von Papen, the person primarily responsible for installing Hitler as chancellor. Several in Papen’s immediate circle were caught up, including his secretary, Herbert von Bose, who was shot in lieu of being arrested. Papen was arrested but spared, He survived the war and was subsequently tried at Nuremberg, along with Nazi principals charged with war crimes. Papen’s crime seems to have been just what he did, ushering Hitler into power and supporting his early programs. He was acquitted and walked free from that trial, but was subsequently tried and jailed by a German court. He died in 1969, having considerably exceeded his life expectancy.

Shirer continued to report from Paris until August, at which time he was hired by Universal Service and commenced his reporting from Berlin. The next in this series is an introduction to Berlin and Nazi Germany.

Donald Trump’s first pick as his National Security Advisor was soon his ex pick for National Security Advisor. It was not the first time the retired lieutenant general was shown the door. The previous president had the pleasant task three years ago. As I previously wrote about that:

According to The New York Times, Flynn exhibited a loose relationship with facts, leading his subordinates to refer to Flynn’s repeated dubious assertions as “Flynn facts”

I have heard around baseball circles, “It’s not over until it’s over.” It’s not over.

Yesterday ABC World News Tonight with David Muir had the story (see the image above):

Today, a turning point. The top Republican and Democrat on the House Oversight Committee emerging in agreement, saying Flynn failed to disclose his business dealings with Russia and likely broke the law.

Flynn May Have Broken Law by Not Disclosing Russia Dealings, Lawmakers Say

WASHINGTON — Michael T. Flynn, President Trump’s first national security adviser, may have violated federal law by not fully disclosing his business dealings with Russia when seeking a security clearance to work in the White House, top House oversight lawmakers from both parties asserted on Tuesday.

The revelation came after Representative Jason Chaffetz, Republican of Utah and chairman of the House oversight committee, and other lawmakers on the panel examined classified documents related to Mr. Flynn, including a form he filled out in January 2016 to receive his security clearance. The form is known as an SF-86 and is required by anyone in the government who handles classified information.

As part of the review, Representative Elijah E. Cummings of Maryland, the committee’s senior Democrat, said Mr. Flynn did not disclose in those documents payments totaling more than $45,000 that he received from the Russian government for giving a speech in Moscow in 2015, among others.

I have not polled my liberal, especially Democratic, friends on the matter, but for me there is no end to the joy I am obtaining. Watching Donald Trump and his administration fold under the weight of missteps and bold face lies is a sight to behold. We should quit whining and enjoy this while it lasts.

There’s no way I’m ever going to run out of these. Daniel Dale, with the Washington bureau of The Toronto Star, compiled a list of 80 fabrications by Donald Trump, all during the first four weeks of the new administration. That was so many days ago, and we have ceased expecting any truth from our president. It’s near pointless to continue putting Donald Trump’s lies on display. However, forge ahead I must. History is waiting. Here is number 68:

68. Feb. 16, 2017 — White House press conference

The claim about the 9th Circuit appeals court: “I think that circuit is — that circuit is in chaos and that circuit is frankly in turmoil.”

In fact: The court is functioning as normal. There is no sign of chaos or turmoil.

Daniel Dale’s list has since grown. As of 18 April the count was up to 179. How long can our president keep this up? Better yet, how long can I keep this up?

Hey! It’s a teenage, coming of age yarn, with time travel. You know the type. I viewed it on Amazon Prime Video. Details are from Wikipedia. It’s Project Almanac, from 2015. Wikipedia hails it as a “found footage” style, but this is unlike The Blair Witch Project, and Cloverfield, where everybody dies. The production company is listed as MTV Films and Platinum Dunes. The company logo shows it was distributed by Paramount Pictures.

What gives this the found footage look and feel is the home video shooting style. We open with three geeky teens and their science project. David Raskin (Jonny Weston) is in the middle, and Quinn Goldberg (Sam Lerner) and Adam Le (Allen Evangelista) are his buddies. It’s David’s idea to parlay his drone robotics genius into a full MIT scholarship. He demonstrates for a video shot by his sister Christina (Virginia Gardner). We see her from time to time, since she spends most of the movie behind the camera. She’s got great boobs in case Steve wants to watch this.

Too bad. David gets accepted to MIT, but it’s not a full scholarship. He’s going to have to kick in the remaining $40,000. His mother plans to sell the house to raise the money. She is a widow, David’s father was killed in a car crash right after David’s 7th birthday party.

The three science kids wander into the late father’s workshop to sift for any left-over science projects that can be used to leverage additional scholarship money. David comes across a video camera. It’s footage from that last birthday party. He views the celebration. He sees himself in a mirror. It’s as he is now, not as he was ten years ago. The logical conclusion is that David’s father was working on time travel. That would be a great science project to divvy up additional scholarship funds.

The kids get together and go through the late father’s notes. They reconstruct his work.

Success! They invent time travel. Market it? No way. It was developed under the father’s DARPA grant. They figure they can exploit it directly. They team with good looking Jessie Pierce (Sofia Black-D’Elia). David’s hot on her, and he’s been trying to work up to talking to her anyhow.

They make a pact. The will all go back in time together. The experiment with going back farther and staying longer. They go back to help Quinn get past a difficult classroom assignment. See the image below. Quinn has previously muffed a response to a Chemistry question. The plan is for them to all go back so Quinn can substitute for the former Quinn and aced the question. As the former Quinn heads for the chemistry class, Christina rushed out to inform him the class has been canceled. They can’t afford for both copies of Quinn to show up for class.

The teens work their way up. Win the lottery, raking in millions to share. They purchase press passes to a prior Lollapalooza on eBay and go back to the event with unfettered access. A wall at Lollapalooza asks people to write what they want to do before they die. Jessie says she wants to fall in love. David says he wants to go sky diving. A budding romance withers on the vine.

Tragedy. The butterfly effect is manifest, as a chain of events set into motion in the past results in an aviation tragedy.

David goes back alone, and undoes the start of Project Almanac. In class, with David alone knowing what has transpired, he realizes he must talk to Jessie. She has been waiting for him to make his move. Love will bloom for real.

OK, get past time travel and all that, this is supposed to be a home video production. I can appreciate, maybe Christina shooting David and Jessie in the school cafeteria, but who’s taking the live camera footage while the two make out in bed? Dvid goes back in time alone. Who’s shooting the video? Yes, there’s some loss of continuity there.

The director, Dean Israelite, wants to show us what it’s like when you make a time jump. He does it by swirling a bunch of stuff around.

There’s no way I’m ever going to run out of these. Daniel Dale, with the Washington bureau of The Toronto Star, compiled a list of 80 fabrications by Donald Trump, all during the first four weeks of the new administration. That was so many days ago, and we have ceased expecting any truth from our president. It’s near pointless to continue putting Donald Trump’s lies on display. However, forge ahead I must. History is waiting. Here is number 67:

67. Feb. 16, 2017 — White House press conference

The claim: “We had Hillary Clinton give Russia 20 per cent of the uranium in our country.” Added: “Hillary Clinton gave them 20 per cent of our uranium.”

In fact: Clinton didn’t personally give Russia uranium. The State Department, which Clinton led as secretary of state, was one of nine government entities that reviewed the Russian purchase of the Toronto-based firm Uranium One, which controlled the rights to about 20 per cent of U.S. uranium capacity. There is no evidence Clinton was personally involved in the process in any way. Further, only the president could have made the decision to block the deal; Clinton did not have final authority either way.

Daniel Dale’s list has since grown. As of 18 April the count was up to 179. How long can our president keep this up? Better yet, how long can I keep this up?

Tuesday again. Time for Jesus to take another young life. Only this was over a quarter of a century ago. Amazing how little changes:

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) —

In the early months of 1991, the nation was preoccupied with the Persian Gulf War, as the United States chased Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein from his dream of annexing Kuwait.

In Philadelphia, health and school officials were locked in battle too – against a major measles outbreak, and the deep religious convictions which fueled the spread of the virus.

Nine children would die, six of them associated with two fundamentalist churches which preach a reliance on prayer, not medical care, to cure disease.

Five of those children would die in 10 days.

This post honors the sacrifice little Jamie Jones made in the cause of what some claim to be religious freedom, actually a license to kill. He is only one of several, and his death spurred his grandmother to push the Pennsylvania legislature to clamp down on religious exemptions. Little progress has been made since. The stupid is strong here.

There’s no way I’m ever going to run out of these. Daniel Dale, with the Washington bureau of The Toronto Star, compiled a list of 80 fabrications by Donald Trump, all during the first four weeks of the new administration. That was so many days ago, and we have ceased expecting any truth from our president. It’s near pointless to continue putting Donald Trump’s lies on display. However, forge ahead I must. History is waiting. Here is number 66:

66. Feb. 16, 2017 — White House press conference

The claim: “This administration is running like a fine- tuned machine, despite the fact that I can’t get my cabinet approved. And they’re outstanding people like Senator Dan Coats who’s there, one of the most respected men of the Senate. He can’t get approved. How do you not approve him?”

In fact: We’ll ignore the dubious “fine-tuned machine” claim — there is no sign that Coats, Trump’s nominee for Director of National Intelligence, “can’t get approved” or is even facing obstruction. The Republican who chairs the Senate intelligence committee, Sen. Richard Burr, told The Hill they are waiting for the FBI and others to finish background checks, and that they will hold a hearing when the Senate returns from its one-week break.

Daniel Dale’s list has since grown. As of 18 April the count was up to 179. How long can our president keep this up? Better yet, how long can I keep this up?

Just recently I had to respond to a Facebook comment that compared Donald Trump to Barack Obama, this regarding Trump’s lack of familiarity with the truth:

And we should paint President Obama with the same brush? In this regard Obama is a piker compared to Trump. Actually, not even Nixon attained Trump’s rarefied air.

Obama a piker. Yes, a slacker. Then I wondered if anybody reading had an idea where we got the term “piker.” That’s this week’s Quiz Question. What’s the origin of the term?

Post your answer as a comment below. No fair running to Google. You were supposed to know this stuff already.

Update and answer

People wanting to know how we got the term “piker” need to go all the back to an explorer named Zebulon Pike. Pike, later Brigadier General Pike, conducted two explorations of the American West under the presidency of Thomas Jefferson. On his expedition he and his men discovered and attempted to climb what is now known as Pike’s Peak in Colorado. This was in November, and they were unsuccessful, leading Pike to proclaim that this obstacle would never be climbed. Today there are an automobile roadway and a cog rail line going to the top.

During the gold rush of 1849 many set out from the eastern states to head for the California gold fields. Some had “California or Bust” painted on their wagons. As with such adventures, California was a mountain range and a desert too far, and some got to Pike’s Peak and gave up. Today these people are known as pikers, those who failed at their endeavors or did not live up to their early promise.

In Missouri there is a Pike County, giving rise to the song:

Do you remember sweet Betsy from Pike,
Who crossed the high mountain with her lover Mike?